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Takeaways: Defensive exposure, lineups and more from No. 1 Purdue's exhibition loss at No. 9 Kentucky

On3 imageby: Brian Neubert18 hours agobrianneubert
Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn
Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn (Jordan Prather/Imagn Images)

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis from No. 1 Purdue’s 78-63 exhibition loss at No. 9 Kentucky Friday night at Rupp Arena.

PDF: Purdue-Kentucky statistics

DEFENSE HAS TO IMPROVE AND WILL

Purdue must, must, must do a better job containing initial penetration and checking every necessary box in ball-screen defense. Just because there’s size back there now doesn’t mean it’s any less important.

But … a real scouting report would have changed a lot. That’s the tie that binds everything from this game together.

That said, Purdue gave up too many paint touches, lost too many cutters and proved vulnerable to too many heads of steam built up by its outlier shooting night and handful of turnovers. The guards have to stay into the ball, attached to their man, for one thing, but also keep the ball out of middle by general rule. That’s not really game-specific stuff, just basic.

More characteristic shooting and more logical lineup configurations might have obscured the slippage on D, but not erased them. The shooting will normalize; Job 1 now has to be the defensive piece of it.

It has been for weeks and months now, but there was not an immediate payout on Friday night, but keep in mind again, more detailed preparation would have made a big difference here.

A lot went into Purdue’s defensive mediocrity Friday night, but that’s the great thing about these stakes-free exhibitions. Go get exposed, get humbled, then get better. You can talk about something ’til you’re Blue in the face, but getting shown by an opponent is a different deal.

You will see a different team when the games count.

PURDUE’S LINEUPS WERE WARPED REALITY

You will not see Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn on the bench together in a first half ever again this season. You saw it tonight, as Painter was just throwing a substance at the wall to see what stuck.

Smith and Omer Mayer have barely practiced together to this point, but they overlapped for a good chunk of the freshman’s 13 minutes.

This was not the Boilermaker team you’ll see once the games count. Had this been the regular season, Smith wouldn’t have left the floor ’til the game was decided, for one thing. They were crow-barring in minutes for freshmen.

THE REBOUNDING ISSUE

Purdue got outrebounded by a wide margin but when you look at the numbers, keep in mind that Purdue missed a few more shots than UK and did get beat at times when it was small at the 4 by big, athletic guys.

It should be kept in mind that Purdue’s depth in the frontcourt is Daniel Jacobsen coming off injury and Jack Benter playing a new position. There’s going to be some ups and downs in that regard. If you think Purdue is a perfect team because it’s No. 1, think again. It’s really good, probably great, but flawless it is not.

The Boilermakers will be a much-improved rebounding team this season, especially in the first unit.

But they won’t be perfect.

Fourteen second-chance points allowed is too many, but the long ones are what they are. Size doesn’t help you as much on missed threes. UK took 29 threes, which itself was a bit of a defensive positive, because they got deep in the shot clock a handful of times and took a bunch of iso-ball jumpers.

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